For one day each year, the turkey gets its time to shine. While most of that shining is done quite literally, as the glazed centerpiece of Thanksgiving feasts around the nation, a few fortunate fowl are granted pardons and given a chance to live out their not-so-long lives in greener pastures, awkwardly bobbing their heads, crying gobble-gobble and whatever else it is that turkeys do.
Those symbolic pardons may make the turkey eaters among us feel somewhat better about stuffing our faces with coma-inducing amounts of gravy-smothered poultry, yet during one such event in 2008, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) managed to tear the mask (or head?) off the whole charade. We’ll call it the greatest turkey-related disaster in the history of politics.
Fresh off a defeat in the 2008 presidential election, Palin headed to a turkey farm in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, to pardon a local bird ― a common practice among governors.
Palin delivered her prepared remarks over frequent interruptions from clucking birds not as fortunate as the turkey getting the reprieve. She even touted herself as a “friend to all creatures great and small” before posing for a photo op.
What happened next was entirely unexpected. While many had recently learned that Palin could be unpredictable ― even a maverick, perhaps ― Americans couldn’t have foreseen her conducting a lengthy on-camera interview while live birds were being fed into a machine of mass turkey murder mere feet behind her.
Palin seemed to unwittingly nail her remarks, commenting on the need to find “levity” in her job as turkey after turkey was decapitated by the metal cone of death in the background. The man shoving the struggling birds into the device even looked up toward Palin and the camera as the governor presciently predicted that the spectacle would invite skepticism.
(The goriest moments have been censored in the video above.)
Although her office later denied that she’d known what was playing out behind her, Palin was reportedly asked if she wanted that particular backdrop for her interview, to which she replied, “No worries.”
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Final Words
“Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet.” -- CBS interview with Katie Couric, September 25, 2008
Putin
"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where – where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border." -- CBS interview with Katie Couric, September 25, 2008
Continent
"So we discussed what was going on in Africa. And never, ever did I talk about, Well, gee, is it a country or is it a continent, I just don't know about this issue." -- Fox interview with Greta Van Susteren, November 11, 2008
The Tonys
“I don’t know if I should Buenos Aires or Bonjour, or… this is such a melting pot. This is beautiful. I love the diversity. Yeah. There were a whole bunch of guys named Tony in the photo line, I know that.” -- Addressing a Charity of Hope gathering, Hamilton, Ontario, April 15, 2010
Track
“Obviously we loved sports, and the baby was born during the spring track season.” --Going Rogue
Irony
“Believe it or not – this was in the 60s – we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse…. Isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada.” -- Speech in Calgary, Alberta, March 6, 2010
Death Panels
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." -- Facebook, Aug. 7, 2009
Messiah
"When the American people elected President Obama they gave him responsibility to handle this disaster. He promised to “heal the earth, and watch the waters recede...” or something far-fetched like that." -- On the oil spill, May 27, 2010
Evolution
“I didn’t believe the theory that human beings – thinking, loving beings – originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea. Or that human beings began as single-celled organisms that developed into monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees.” --Going Rogue
Cologne
“With the gray Talkeetna Mountains in the distance and the first light covering of snow about to descend on Pioneer Peak, I breathed in an autumn bouquet that combined everything small-town America with rugged splashes of the Last Frontier.” --Going Rogue
First Amendment
"I think it's appalling and a violation of our freedom of the press." —On negative media coverage of Republican congressional candidate Vaughn Ward, Boise, Idaho, May 21, 2010
Refudiate
"Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate." —On plans to build an Islamic community center near Ground Zero, via Twitter, July 18, 2010
Shakespeare
"'Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!" —Tweet, July 18, 2010
Cop
"I'm not politically correct. I am not one to be a word police." -- Fox interview with Chris Wallace Feb. 7 , 2010
Post Script
"I didn't really had a good answer, as so often -- is me." --On writing notes on her hand for the Tea Party convention address, March 5, 2010
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